Biodiversity & Endangered Species

Readings:

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Goals: Natural Selection

• Explain and evaluate several hypothesis that explain the origins of life.
• Describe what the fossil record has shown scientists
• Explain the process of natural selection
• Cite evidence for natural selection
• Compare allopatric and sympatric speciation
• Describe three major types of selection (directional, stabilizing & disruptive)
• Contrast background extinction rates with periods of mass extinction
• Discuss reasons for species extinction and mass extinction events
• Identify the mass extinction events that have occurred on Earth

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Goals: Biodiversity & Population Extinction

• List the levels of ecological organization
• Outline the characteristics of populations that help predict population growth
• Compare logistical and exponential growth
• Explain how limiting factors and carrying capacity impact population growth
• Describe types of survivorship
• Use the growth rate formula to determine a population's growth rate
• Compare K-selected species to R-selected species, give examples and characteristics of each group
• Compare density-independent and density-dependent limiting factors
• Define the term biodiversity
• Describe the ways that evolution influences biodiversity
• Explain the Theory of Island Biogeography
• Characterize the scope of biodiversity on Earth (species, genetics, and ecosystems)
• Evaluate the primary causes of biodiversity loss
• Describe the major benefits of biodiversity (be sure to know specific examples of each)
• Describe the field of conservation biology